


The Man From A Future Passed

by SereneSorrow



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, M/M, More Than One Non-Canon Timeline, Post-Relationship, Pre-Relationship, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:55:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24006226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: Just trying to keep their heads above water, Kisuke and his fellow exiles have finally scraped together the money to buy a roof over their heads, but moving day comes with a strange visitor.Chapter 1 is probably only rated T, but chapter 2 probably deserves the M rating.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 34
Kudos: 321





	1. Warning From A Future Passed

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, finally posting this, I wrote this whole chapter back on August 11, 2019.
> 
> and with the understanding that the start of the manga is set in 2001, and 101 years prior is (according to a timeline on the Bleach wiki) when the exiles arrived in the living world, so 1900, but pretty much all of the vague history/location info is completely made up. (Which there is less of than I thought actually, so whatever...)
> 
> ...oh yeah, title based on Marvel's Days of Future Past and assorted spinoff/sequel titles.

They're standing just outside their new home, a warehouse in the old district that was abandoned as the machine shops moved closer to the harbor and to the new ships being turned out for the big war they've been hearing about. There is more innovation happening there, and there are more upgrades to the shops and their products, so there is no point in holding onto the old properties too far away from where the real work is being done.

The former shop has seen better days and has a few holes that need patching up, but it was all they could afford with the coin they've managed to scrape together and there's only so long that they can sleep in alleys and on rooftops. They may be ghosts most of the time but they aren't immune to the weather and it will turn cold soon. Besides the fact that they've only been lucky so far to not lose control of the demons gnawing away at their minds from inside their souls. They need walls, a roof, a place to hide and contain themselves _when_ it becomes necessary.

That's when it happens, a displacement of the air behind them with no sense of anyone or anything approaching. One moment they're all focused on entering their new property and the next there is something behind them that has their instincts, trained, battle honed, and newly rabid, screaming for defense, attack, flight, everything screaming at them at once. They don't know what it is. Seven former captains, four former lieutenants, and _none of them know_ what just snuck up on them. Every one of them spins around with their weapons drawn or nearly there only to freeze at the sight.

It's definitely not a hollow. It's a young man, they can't quite make out his age, they can't even see his features clearly. He is surrounded by a faint blue light that leads off in tendrils, or maybe they're strings, it's like they are woven around him. They stretch out into the dark and a fizzling sound is heard here and there before the strings fade to invisibility. In a moment the glow around the figure fades completely but the man is just a bit indistinct -like a ghost- and he has next to no spiritual presence.

Those with newly hollowfied souls can't get past the need to attack and struggle to keep themselves in check but Urahara Kisuke's mind is racing as he takes in the stranger. Bright orange hair half-way down his back, a face that beneath the extensive scaring shares so many similarities to the Shiba Clan's characteristic dominant bone structure that it's unlikely he is anything but, and he is dressed in a shihakushō that is unadorned by any division insignias but nevertheless adorned with a zanpakutō. He either has very low spirit energy or a great portion of it is being diverted toward something at the moment and Kisuke is sure that anyone who can withstand the wounds that made those scars and still stand tall is _strong._

“Kisuke.” The man says simply. His voice is quiet and rough from obvious disuse and everyone startles as the man approaches, allowing them to circle him without a backwards glance at their spread as though he doesn't think they are a threat. Kisuke may not be well liked at the moment but he thinks that he can trust the others not to let the stranger murder him right in front of them, so he leaves Benihime in her sheathe.

Kisuke waits curiously as the man walks straight toward him and begins speaking. “If I'm really the best plan you could come up with to stop Aizen then you need to give me more than a few months of training.” Kisuke has no idea what the stranger is talking about, he doesn't _have_ any plans to stop Aizen, he hasn't had a moment to breathe since that night when Aizen Sōsuke revealed himself to them.

_'When would I have time to plan something and how would this stranger know about it if I had?'_ He wonders as those slow steps bring the stranger only a meter away from him.

Kisuke remains silent as the man stops walking, his next words self-depreciating and truthful in tone and terrifying in implication. “I wasn't enough, not for Aizen or what came after. I'm not strong enough to sit on the throne, to hold the threads, I'm not enough.” Kisuke can see a vagueness in his eyes, those last words babbled a bit like he's describing something abstract and Kisuke thinks of the light he wore covered in threads. Blue threads of light and a throne, it's all a guess and Kisuke has no reason to believe he knows what he's thinking of, but a throne of reiryoku and literal 'symbolic' threads of the same make Kisuke think of the Soul King.

He _can't_ be right about that.

The stranger is closing the distance between them again before he resumes speaking. “I'm not from _your_ future, but I can see your world, your path. It's so close to mine, so much is the same, but if you start changing things now you might have a chance.”

Without looking Kisuke waves away Yoruichi and Hirako-taicho both as they tense but Kisuke doesn't believe there is any malicious intent in the way the stranger reaches for him. His hands land on Kisuke's shoulders and Kisuke thinks it's a bit odd that the stranger is an inch shorter than him. Most Shiba men are taller, they have more bulk, more muscle. This young man is corded with muscle but he is lean and Kisuke wonders if he takes after a mother more than a father... It's something to think about if _time travel_ is what he needs to believe in now.

Dull brown eyes focus on him, not entirely, there is some scrap of attention elsewhere but Kisuke thinks that it's as much attention as the man can manage. “When you tried to destroy the Hōgyoku in a gigai he staged an execution and took it. The Visoreds won't get any stronger if you keep trying to suppress the hollows, teamwork is better. The false Karakura Town didn't slow him down long, and the Final Getsuga wasn't enough to kill him. Don't let them release him from Muken, he didn't change, he won't change, he can't change. He'll betray you again, worse than ever, don't let him do it all again.”

The list is confusing, deteriorating as the man goes on, he seems to have trouble retaining clarity the longer he talks. Kisuke catalogues the stranger's warnings as they come. _'A gigai could destroy the Hōgyoku? How?'_ Is the bit that holds the largest portion of Kisuke's attention, and he wishes he could start making calculations now but whatever this is it isn't done yet. Not getting rid of the hollows is a disturbing thought, and he can't help but wonder _how_ this stranger thinks that Hirako-taicho and the others could manage to work with the monsters inside their souls. _'What are Visoreds anyway?'_ Karakura Town wasn't a familiar name, he would have to look for the place, learn why it was significant. The Final Getsuga sounded like a technique, but he had never heard of it, and he was certain that if they actually managed to imprison Aizen Sōsuke he would personally do everything he could to make it permanent. The thought that anyone would give the man a second chance if his crimes were ever revealed is appalling, and he can't think of anyone who would be so stupid, but he's misjudged people before.

Around the circle there are various looks of disbelief and confusion, but everyone is listening intently to the stranger's words now. If they were the ravings of a lunatic there is still the matter of _how_ the stranger appeared here, and the timing of his arrival as he came to them, really the only souls who can be called Aizen Sōsuke's enemies.

There is a blink, like realization, and the next tidbit is a surprise. “Gin. He hated Aizen all along, but by the time he tried to stab him in the back it was too late. Aizen had already evolved and killed him for it, and the Arrancar aren't all bad, it's not like they have any other options besides doing what Aizen says.” The following list, run together and containing a strange undercurrent of excitement that Kisuke has seen in new shinigami looking forward to battles, is mind-bending. “Grimmjow is just like Kenpachi” and “Starrk just wants friends” and “Nel doesn't even like to fight” and “Harribel is just protecting her Fracción”. The comparison between a 'Szayelaporro' and Kurotsuchi Mayuri is worrisome, as well as the warning of Shiba Kaien's absorption into a hollow. It almost sounds like some of these 'Arrancar' are this man's _friends._

The idea that a shinigami and a hollow can be friends is alien, though perhaps that speaks to the same suggestion that they try to integrate the new inner hollows into the established partnerships between shinigami and zanpakutō spirit. Kisuke is actually beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed.

It takes a while for Kisuke to notice it, but as the stranger speaks slower and pauses longer between his confusing and ominous warnings, he sees that the ghost-like quality to the stranger's body is becoming more pronounced. As though he is becoming faded and transparent.

_'Disappearing or leaving?'_ Kisuke wonders just what the stranger will be returning to and knows that it can't be anything good.

The words dry up with a vague description of hybrid souls and how the stranger may be strong but he's _young_ , _alive_ , or he was at the start of Kisuke's plans. Appalling plans if, as the stranger first said, Kisuke was banking everything on this one young man to defeat an enemy that Kisuke apparently never attempted to match and only ever reacted to. Surely with the former captains and lieutenants beside him, and the entire _Gotei_ once Aizen Sōsuke's true nature was revealed, available for his planing Kisuke could come up with something better than that. No matter how true any of the stranger's words are or aren't, Kisuke is determined not to entertain any such plans for a young _living_ soul.

With a shift in stance, almost like the _breeze_ is too strong for the stranger to remain upright, his hands tighten on Kisuke's shoulders. The glazed haze that has overtaken his brown eyes, covered them really, in a dull white sheen isn't enough to block out the way the stranger is staring at Kisuke's face. It's like the stranger is memorizing him, and Kisuke has never been fond of such focused attention on his person but he fights the urge to fidget or pull away. There is something desolate about the stranger and Kisuke can just tell that the man needs this.

It is still a surprise when another waver in the man's stance leads to him leaning in and _kissing_ Kisuke on the lips. Full and open and so completely that the stranger must know exactly what he is doing. Against his own the stranger's lips are painfully dry, he must be suffering from dehydration and it is a wonder he was able to talk for as long as he did. Kisuke can't seem to restrain himself from returning the kiss, even not knowing who and what exactly this stranger is. The man _knows_ them and wants to help as though they are all old friends, and it's not just the familiarity and it's not just the kiss, it's the suggestion of more. The way those lips know his own, and how he likes to be kissed. He can't help but fall into it and be carried away.

Until the stranger pulls away and Kisuke blinks himself back to awareness, knowing that everyone is staring at him in various states of shock. “I have to go.” The stranger says, pressing their foreheads together and still staring at him.

Kisuke thought he had worked out what theoretical relationship some _other_ Urahara Kisuke had to this stranger, a kind of mentor or sensei or commanding officer perhaps if the young man was going to war solely on the basis of Kisuke's plans. A romantic attachment hadn't even crossed his mind, and this knowing look into Kisuke's metaphorical soul was too deep to be physical. No, the stranger was truly attached to him.

The stranger steps back and pulls away from Kisuke, no longer touching him at all. “Just try...” He breathes out, and fades, blue strings pulling back from all around them and wrapped around the stranger like a net. He vanishes in a dim, fuzzy glow of blue and no more spirit energy than he arrived with and the quiet night around them remains undisturbed by his passing.

Kisuke takes a deep breath and tries to sort through everything that has just happened. His companions finally sheathe their own blades and begin to relax, circling back into the space around him. Kisuke thinks about how likely it is that any of tonight's warnings could be true and knows that in time he will have those answers. Planning for Aizen Sōsuke's eventual next move is only the safest most logical move for them, so he really should get started on that as soon as he can. The betrayed ex-shinigami around him may not a like him now, but they all have plenty of reasons to plan Aizen's downfall. Kisuke determinedly sets aside the plans running in the back of his mind to focus on tonight and the immediate future, but someday, someday he is going to find whatever 'alternate future' that stranger lives in and he is going to find a way to save him from it.

If, more and more over the following decades, Kisuke privately hopes to himself that the stranger will give him another kiss then that's his secret. Yoruichi's grin in his direction every time the stranger is mentioned doesn't mean a thing, Kisuke is determined not to give her any more ammunition to tease him with. Her antics have gotten rowdy enough with the Visoreds and their hollows influence for encouragement.

If the arrival of Shiba Isshin in the living world, ready to throw away all of his responsibilities for a woman of much slighter build and familiar orange hair, makes Kisuke's heart skip a beat with both hope and dread then he keeps quiet about that too. Shiba-taicho is at least another captain class fighter to add to their force, and when a son is born the exiles finally learn their stranger's name: Ichigo. There are drinks, and laughter about that, no wonder he didn't introduce himself. Masaki-chan can insist all she likes that her son's name means 'protector' but jokes about strawberries are never _not_ going to be funny.

Their plans all come together well and though they do all take turns training the Kurosaki children, in every form of combat they can share with three living human children, not one of them ever suggests including Ichigo, Karin and Yuzu in a war between shinigami. They can handle their own problems, or their enemies deserve to win. A good thing, or half the students of Karakura High School and Mashiba Junior High School would be demanding a place in the lineup.

The jūreichi's children have all been affected by the reiatsu of a collection of captain class souls and the number of children displaying new and unique abilities is staggering. It's no wonder Aizen chose Karakura as his target, but they mold their plans well to compensate for every new soul they need to protect, and before long the skirmishes begin.

If the Winter War is surprisingly short, and Aizen packed off to the Muken more easily than anyone would have thought, well Kisuke is just glad that he took Ichigo's advice. Allies with inside information really can make up the difference of outdated intelligence and cryptic warnings from the future.

Now, Kisuke has something to look forward to. Something that he has been planning for a long time, and Kisuke may have gotten used to the Visoreds no longer hating him for his failures or suspecting him for his questionable experiments but it still makes him feel a thrill of acceptance when not just Yoruichi and Tessai, but also Shinji and the rest of the original exiles jump into the portal behind him. Every one of them determined as they race toward the unknown looking for someone that they have all carried within their memories for a century. _Their_ Ichigo needs help, and Kisuke is sure that he is still out there. Tied, Kisuke is more certain now, to a Soul King's throne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so that little time skip glossed over everything, because I don't feel like writing multiple chapters about an alternate timeline where Kisuke and the Visoreds actually use their century of downtime to come up with battle plans and attack strategies and traps and various ways they could work with their hopefully future allies and said allies strengths and weaknesses...
> 
> and I went back and fourth on making this a multi-chapter or a series of oneshots, but I think I'll go back to the original idea of multi-chapter, even though I only have one more chapter written so far (and wrote one and two as if they would be oneshots).


	2. Visit To A Future Passed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The math talk is all lies... I know nothing about physics. The Big Bang Theory helps with the jokes. :D
> 
> Ah... You know, I think I actually had this chapter written before I even posted chapter 1? I just kept putting it off forever because I really wanted to write chapter 3 before I posted this one... Failure. But at least this one is finally here! :/
> 
> Also, I had a LOT of trouble editing this, I'm going to go over it again in a couple days, but I've re-read it about four times in two days now so I need a break. I think I fixed all the problems I found, I'm just hoping I didn't accidentally delete a paragraph or something! :(
> 
> WARNINGS: There's some (probably inaccurate) stuff about starvation, and some human waste... I don't know why my mind wanted to go into detail about all that, but it did.

The path through the portal is nothing like the Dangai and even less like the Senkaimon. Instead of darkness and walls of black muck or the elegant shoji and normal pathway, there seems to be a riot of a war going on between golden and iridescent blue lights. Kisuke doesn't know what to make of it but the path holds steady enough beneath their feet that he doesn't bother worrying about phenomena he can't do anything about. Around him Yoruichi and the Visoreds are observing, gawking at or warily edging away from the same light show as they run.

The trip takes longer than any run through the Dangai ever has for him, he supposes that in the literal interpretation of their journey that makes sense as they are traveling into a world not their own instead of between the realms of their own 'reality'. Given that a path between worlds has always been a trip through time as well as space though, Kisuke wonders that the trip isn't equal or even shorter. The physics involved...

Kisuke shakes those thoughts away as they reach the end and exit in one last jump, heedless of any danger on the other side. Perhaps a more wary approach would have been wiser, given that it was never a question that this world would be hostile in one way or another, but they are all veterans of a war finished just days ago and being ready for battle or to adapt to catastrophe in an instant is ingrained in them all. With a minimum of more than a century of experience for each of them individually it would have to be for them to have survived this long.

They are on guard immediately for an attack if whatever residents of this world there may be on the other side have already staked out the portal, but the air around them is empty. The landscape before them is a barren desert of hard earth, not a single tree in sight. No green at all and a mountain they don't recognize rising high in the distance, just the same sienna color as the ground below.

Warily, their senses noting the absence of reiatsu as far as their range can stretch, they sheathe their zanpakutō and look around in all directions. This appears to be the living world, though they are not in the basement of his shop so they didn't move between two anchored points. There is only an infinitesimal fraction of the reishi in their own living world as there is in their own soul society, but in this world even those faint traces are absent. There is nothing, and no one, anywhere. They may as well just pick a direction and start walking. Kisuke pulls a handheld device from one of his pockets, a device similar to a GPS, and he registers the signature of the portal on it as the first map reference. There isn't enough data in the device yet to determine the official compass positions, he didn't think to bring an _actual_ compass so he can't check for magnetic north, so they will just have to map landmarks as they go.

It is hours into their search for Ichigo, or indeed anyone at all at this point, that they come upon the perimeter of some kind of camp. One moment they thought they were alone with no-one for miles and miles and the next moment a wall comes down and a shimmering haze in the air pulls back to reveal guards in stained whites. The uniform's style is familiar from the clothes worn by the Quincy boy that is Ichigo's cousin, but the number of people wearing Quincy colors is shocking.

_'Where did they all come from?'_ Kisuke wonders.

Ichigo had said that their worlds were similar, enough so that his warnings and hints would help them, but Kisuke would remember if such a large population of Quincys had survived the war and the unfortunate exterminations that followed.

"Soul Reapers! So you survived this long? You must be ready to die if you've come here!" A man with hair in a shade reminiscent of Lieutenant Abarai shouts, and every Quincy in sight raises a bow of bright blue reishi and aims in their direction.

The group looks weary under their enraged expressions of hatred for the shinigami, worn down and desperate but persevering through their circumstances. This isn't a fight Kisuke particularly wants to engage in. As the Visoreds deflect the hail of arrows and Yoruichi and Tessai cover for him Kisuke registers the Quincy camp's location in his GPS.

Dodging through the rain of reishi spears the group retreats hastily, adrenaline and pure determination in their veins as the Quincys chase after them through an unfamiliar canyon that Kisuke hastily marks as well. The trench looked as though it was carved by reiatsu, and Kisuke briefly wonders what kind of battle could have made such a deep scar on the landscape.

As their retreat continues and some of the Quincys fall behind the Visoreds share a series of looks that Kisuke recognizes as conversation, they have some kind of plan. Hiyori, Rose and Love split from the group in one direction while Hachi and Lisa head off in the other, Shinji taking the lead for those who are left to lead the Quincys around in a loop. A sudden attack from Rose, Love and Hiyori drives the Quincys away from them, and a barrier from Hachi springs up to enclose three of the Quincys, while the rest finally retreat.

They all take a moment to catch their breaths before approaching the prisoners, with grim expressions all around. Two men and one woman are trapped in the small barrier, and only the smaller, younger man has anything to say. The other two glare at him while he talks but seem more content to shun him than to attack him for confessing information.

When they ask about the kings realm all three prisoners tense and their gazes are assessing, as though they are plotting something now, and Kisuke thinks through why the Quincys may be so interested in the kings realm themselves. If the devastation around them extends to soul society, Kisuke wonders what role the kings realm played in what happened to this world. It was before his time in the Gotei proper, but as he recalls, the Quincy king had some interest in the soul king's power.

_'Could that still be the agenda here?'_ Kisuke has been theorizing for a century now about how Ichigo appeared to them, and the possibilities (and impossibilities) of him being _tied_ to the throne.

If Ichigo is in the kings realm he could theoretically have closed off access to the throne, he could be keeping the Quincys from it for some reason. Ichigo had told them that he wasn't strong enough though, if there was anything that the Soul King's power could do for this wasteland around them then Ichigo hasn't been able to manage it. If this world's Ichigo is anything like the young man that they have all grown to know as a student then he would have acted if there was anything he could do. The Ichigo they had met had sounded as though he was only barely hanging on, but he wouldn't deliberately condemn this world. If he is keeping the Quincys from the throne for a reason then Kisuke truly believes that it is a good one.

Their prisoner finally gives them enough information to turn them in the direction of where Karakura Town had once stood, Kisuke's shop may not be there but he is familiar enough with the area in their world that he should be able to open a gate to the kings realm from there. Simple kido leaves the prisoners unconscious, Kisuke is sure that the three were hoping to either be brought along to gain access to the kings realm or have a chance to return to their camp and follow them with their full force.

"Are ya sure this will work?" Shinji is clearly skeptical that Kisuke can find a way into the kings realm, and even more skeptical that he can get into one in another world entirely.

"The principals are the same, there are a few different frequencies involved but the readings I've been taking since we arrived have pinpointed just what range the kings realm exists within. At the moment anyway." Kisuke explains distractedly, wiring the last of the control pad to the collapsible gate that Tessai had carried along and assembled.

Shinji scoffs and dodges one of Hiyori's sandals, catching it before it can hit the gate, and then scoops Hiyori up under an arm and carries her back to where most of their group has already taken seats some distance away.

"Dammit baldy! Unhand me! You idiot, you don't know how that gate stuff works anyway, just let the dumbass work!" Hiyori shouts as she squirms around, trying to kick Shinji anywhere she can reach.

Kisuke appreciates the vote of confidence from his former lieutenant, he hadn't realized how much she trusts him with this mission of his, but in the last hundred years they have all thought long and hard on Ichigo's visit. They had all enjoyed teasing Kisuke about his 'crush' on the stranger once Yoruichi had confirmed it for everyone, and after meeting the Ichigo who was born in their own world they had gotten attached to the boy and had projected his personality onto the strange visitor. Imagining the young human boy fighting in their war and surviving only to fight _other_ threats that were hinted at coming after all to eventually wind up struggling to hold _the soul king's throne_ completely on his own is not a fate that they can leave their student to.

As the gate powers up Kisuke begins entering the calculations necessary to build the path between the living world and the kings realm. It really is a fascinating series of numbers describing abstract principals that shouldn't technically work in the world as it is. Describe all the spherical chickens you want but some proofs just can't be translated into reality.

The gate they are expecting never appears, instead the frame bows inward a few inches as a void of blacks and greys opens within like a vacuum. It is no less stable than the portal that had brought them to this world, but the coloring does understandably make them nervous.

"If that thing kills us you're going to pay Geta-Boshi!" Hiyori yells, flustered.

Kisuke hides his smile at the words. Hiyori had found young Ichigo-kun's nickname for him hilarious and had adopted it herself, continuing to use it even when Ichigo-kun had seemed to outgrow the habit. Her example had drawn Ichigo-kun back to the name and Kisuke couldn't help playing into the expectations that he act alternately goofy and mysterious. It is rather fun actually, and it infuriates nearly everyone, which is a definite bonus.

"Ah? My calculations are perfect. There's nothing to worry about. I'll even go first!" Kisuke decides not to mention the 0.003% chance of being redirected to somewhere that all the scans and math in the world hasn't been able to describe to him.

After a strange pop when he steps inside, this new path looks far more like the Dangai then their previous portal had. He is relieved when everyone comes through behind him, no disappearances yet, and the next run proves to be significantly shorter than the last. The realm they emerge into is almost blindingly bright, and full of barren white stone. A cross of overly detailed stonework and minimalist slabs with strait edges stretches as far as the eye can see. Nothing green anywhere, and just as devoid of life as the living world.

More so in fact, as they walk carefully toward the palace watchful for danger, no one appearing to challenge them. The palace itself is missing more than one section of roof, and there are holes in both walls and floors. There had been a battle within, and no one around after to repair the damage. Everyone shifts nervously as they keep their guard up, no one can imagine a fight going so far as to reach the Soul King's Palace itself, and Kisuke is sure some of his companions don't wand to know what had happened here. He himself is certainly curious as to just who or what could gain entry to the kings realm and do this much damage, but that isn't what's important right now so he restrains himself to a few glances as they continue on to the throne room.

Beside him, Yoruichi looks grimly at the epicenter of the battle, the cratered floor and gouged columns around the room. Kisuke himself has eyes only for the throne. It is still a distance away from them in the large hall, but he can see that there is a figure sprawled over it, pale flesh color exposed and fingers curled over the bright white stone armrests. The figure isn't moving.

The group stays together, spreading in a semi-circle when they come to stand on the dais around the throne. The figure laying limply over the sharp white stone chair has his head thrown back over one corner of the chair where it had taken some kind of damage and had crumbled lower to coincidentally become an ideal rest. Bright orange hair spills down beneath him, it would probably reach his knees if it wasn't tangled in huge knots and matted with filth. Ichigo's eyes are closed in what looked like a light doze, though with the blue light of the throne's power dragging over him he might in fact simply be focusing his attention elsewhere, some distant place or even time that they can't perceive.

He is unclothed, pale skin bared completely to display a scarred face and an even more heavily scarred body. A line through the left eye from hairline to jaw and a channel through the right collarbone. An expanse of rough flesh grown in over half the stomach and hip on the right side and more than one puncture wound over the front of his torso. Countless small cuts from bladed weapons cross each other along both arms and legs. This damage is noted, but it is not the true horror of the sight before them.

The body is emaciated, shriveled down beyond starvation, skin stretched tight over bone and sinew with the joints just bulbous protrusions between stick arms and legs and the face sunken in with dark bags under huge eyes. Dry, pale lips on a slightly gaping mouth and fingers too brittle to grip the zanpakutō sheathed and resting across the armrests over the figure's sharply protruding hips, a bare attempt at modesty that may as well be nonexistent over the sunken hollows carving in toward the bones. Unlike a starving body his stomach isn't distend outward in a last bloated attempt to retain desperately needed nutrients and fat. Instead it is so concave that the skin had thinned and they can see a vague fluttering and twitching of a few organs as they attempt to maintain function. The ribs protruding high over the cavity with deep divots of sunken skin between them as the chest rises imperceptibly for breath and a knot of muscle flexes in time to a slow heartbeat.

On the flesh, over the scars, glowing blue lines of equal thinness wrap the body. Circling the neck midway, banding around the upper chest, below the ribs and just above the hips. More rings spread equally distant around the arms and legs, two above and two below the elbows and three each above and below the knees. All connected to each other by straight lines running up from the lowest ring near the ankles which meet the center of the hip ring and continue in a single line up the torso to the neck, running over the chest horizontally just below the collarbones to connect straight through every ring on the arms. These lines and rings all trail off of his skin and into the throne itself or disappear into the air around them.

_'I'm not strong enough to sit on the throne, to hold the threads'_ Ichigo had told them a century ago.

Kisuke's hypothesis had been right, Ichigo is literally _tied_ to the throne. How he could survive like this for so long Kisuke doesn't know.

 _'Some kind of give and take of power through the throne itself perhaps?'_ He wonders in faint horror, his temples are pounding and his heart racing at the sight before him and he grips Benihime tightly as she screams and shakes in rage.

Beneath the body, fluids and the dried and decomposing remains of waste have pooled and dripped over the edge to spill into a stain on the floor. No attendants to clean him, which suggests that if he had been clothed once, well then a century or more and the power flowing through the throne and those threads have likely been enough to wear them away. No attendants to feed him either, another point toward Ichigo managing to draw sustenance through the throne's power.

No one has anything but curses to speak at the sight of the dying body before them. Dismay, rage and horror are the main emotions running through them all. This strong, generous young man, so like the boy they have all had a hand in training in the past decade and a half, has strung himself up to the throne to maintain the bounds of this dying reality. He has suffered alone for more than a century as his body is worn away from him, stealing even his dignity as he is forced to wallow in his own filth.

This is unacceptable. Whatever those Quincys had done, and who else could be the cause when they are the only survivors of all that has befallen this world, has led to this. Those Quincys who even now look for an opportunity to reach this power. Innocent souls Kisuke might have tried to evacuate from this world, but the small army still trying to reach the Soul King's throne will not receive his mercy.

Kisuke maneuvers around the threads with care until he can reach the left side of the throne near where Ichigo's head rests. Tentatively he places a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, and the flesh is as cold as the stone.

"Ichigo? Can you hear me?" He calls to the man, but instead of eyes opening or lips moving the blue thread nearest to Kisuke vibrates wildly for a moment, an almost audible hum resonating from it.

Kisuke flattens his hand against that cold skin and waits. If Ichigo isn't asleep than he must be doing something, and they are interrupting. Best to wait for him to finish whatever it is before demanding his attention.

Minutes pass as they continue to stare in worry until slowly, heavy eyelids raise over cloudy brown irises. His head is already tilted slightly from the way he is sprawled in the throne so Ichigo sees him immediately, but Kisuke can tell that it takes time for him to comprehend what he is seeing.

"Ki-" Is all he manages before his hoarse voice breaks on a wheeze that bows his practically exposed ribcage and upsets the horrifically displayed inner workings of his body. They avert their eyes politely or banish any disgust or discomfort from their faces as fresh urine and feces are expelled while his body shakes and trembles until it re-steadies itself. They wouldn't dare let him feel shame for something that his desiccated body can't control.

Kisuke keeps his eyes locked on Ichigo's face through his struggle. "I'm here. You aren't alone." Kisuke tries to comfort, it still isn't something he does well but if he would try it for anyone it would be Ichigo.

Perhaps those dull eyes lighten a touch and Kisuke shifts aside just a bit as Shinji weaves through the threads to stand beside him within Ichigo's view. Shinji has perhaps the greatest claim as Ichigo-kun's mentor, though they all remembered that Ichigo hadn't paid much attention to anyone but Kisuke one hundred years ago, and he likely wants to be a part of reassuring the man that they have come for him.

"Hey, kid. Thanks for the warning, we took care a' Aizen, so now we're here ta' rescue ya'." He says gently but with his now customary grin.

With a long slow blink Ichigo takes in this information, then his eyes move between the two of them once, twice, three times before finally settling back on Kisuke. With a steady look that Kisuke can't quite interpret Ichigo closes his eyes again, seemingly falling back into whatever trance he had been in upon their arrival.

The threads around them hum, and the ones around Ichigo's body seem to almost constrict, until a few threads tangle into the same configuration as those strapped around his body and within them a form coalesces. Ichigo, exactly as they had seen him one hundred years ago in shihakushō and with his zanpakutō, appears across from them on the right side of the throne. On the throne the real Ichigo remains 'asleep' while the avatar regards them with the same partially glazed eyes they remember from his first contact with them.

_'He wasn't sending himself back through time, but one of these avatars. If he could do that, then what are the chances that his body hadn't already begun this deterioration before then? Was he already this weak and starved when he came to warn us?'_ Kisuke's soul, especially Benihime, cries out at the thought.

That Ichigo, even so weak as he is now, had still struggled to warn them about the future. The state he entered to create this avatar, it looks the same as he had looked before he had woken, he could be sending warnings to other worlds and timelines as well. All this time he might have been doing the same, trying to save as many of them as he could.

The thought makes Kisuke angry more than it should, because while it is a noble endeavor and perhaps the 'right thing to do', Ichigo deserves to _rest_. Ichigo had told them that Kisuke had set him up against _Aizen_ , and others afterwards, and after it all and with his own world crumbling around him Ichigo is still forcing himself to keep fighting the same enemies over and over again. Kisuke can't allow this to go on. Those other worlds will have to take care of themselves, they may not have been the first or the last that Ichigo had warned, but they are the ones who are standing here with Ichigo now and they aren't going to let this self-destructive behavior continue any longer.

Benihime hums in furious agreement, and a look around at his companions is enough to see that they are all equally determined to succeed in their original plan of rescuing Ichigo. All around he gets nods and glaring eyes just daring anyone to stop them, just daring Ichigo not to agree. The avatar looked around at them all as well, blinking in what might have been surprise.

"Rescue?" He asks simply, as though he doesn't understand, as though he hadn't expected anyone to come for him.

Kisuke can't imagine what this world's version of himself had done, or more precisely _not_ done, for Ichigo to think that it is alright that he has been left ignored and _chained_ here.

"We've been planning this for a century, we followed as much of your advice as we could but it was always the plan to find a way to you and repay you for your aid however we could. We assumed from your words that the time you came from could not be hospitable, and we planned to offer you a place in our own world. It is still an offer of course, we won't _force_ you to come with us but I must say that I can't let you stay here Ichigo. Not like this, please let us help you." Kisuke insists, begs, doesn't look at the eyes of his comrades who don't like the idea of giving Ichigo any choice so horrendous such as _staying_ here like _this_.

The avatar stares back at him, thoroughly bewildered by the offer. Then he looks at Shinji, who nods in agreement before speaking up again.

"We want ya' ta' come home with us where we can protect ya', and keep ya' safe. Ya' did more for us than we coulda' asked for and we owe ya' for that, but we also have gotten ta' know the Ichigo of our own world, and we can't imagine leavin' him behind so we can't very well forget about ya' either." Shinji says to the stunned avatar.

With that same waver that Kisuke remembers from a century past, as though his form is growing weaker, the avatar turns to the rest of the group for confirmation. Tessai, Rose, Love, Lisa, and Hachi all nod silently in mute support, while Kensei offers one of his terrifying smiles.

"Berry-tan should come home with us!" Mashiro squeals, bouncing on her heels excitedly but not running forward as is customary of her, she wasn't so oblivious that she would pounce on someone so weakened.

"We've got space for you anywhere you want to go Ichigo." Yoruichi offers more seriously than she usually acted, because it is doubtful that Ichigo can handle very many jokes right now.

"Just agree already! It's not like we're gonna do anything bad to you, what could be worse than this?" Hiyori's voice is raised not quite as high as her usual shouting, her face still expressing how troubled she is by the state Ichigo is in.

The avatar's head became bowed, his shoulders slumping as though he has been cowed by their offering of support. Kisuke worries at the reaction, that he seems to take their offer of help as a blow of some kind, but when the avatar looks back up at him it is with a small glimmer of hope in his eyes. Though he is nearly scowling with how deeply carved his frown is, Kisuke can see that there is a new lightness to the set of his shoulders.

"I'll go with you." The avatar says simply before it fades away, and the real Ichigo's eyes slide slowly open to stare up at Kisuke again, he looks determined for a moment before they begin to glow with the blue light of the throne and the king's power.

The strings around them whip through the air and vibrate in place, the glow around Ichigo's body brightens as some of the threads that trail off grow larger and others shrink until they disappear. None of them can perceive exactly what Ichigo is doing, but soon even the larger threads shrink again and then vanish, until only the bands and straps around Ichigo's body remain. They glow fainter and fainter until suddenly, as though they've been cut, they burn black and all sense of reiatsu emanating from them vanishes. Ichigo has cut the ties that bind him to the throne.

It is such a change in the power that had been filling the room that it takes Kisuke a moment before he notices what is truly missing. The Ichigo-kun they were all so accustomed to had exceptionally high reiryoku reserves, teaching him to control and to a degree suppress it had taken years, but Ichigo suddenly felt as though he had less reiryoku than even the weakest unseated officers Kisuke had ever encountered. When he was still tied to the throne Kisuke would have assumed that his reiatsu was being used in conjunction with the Soul King's power, but away from it Kisuke doesn't know what to make of it. All he can think of is that he will need to make a closer study of the stark black lines that still curl possessively around Ichigo's shriveled body.

A shudder quakes through the palace, setting the columns around the room to shaking alarmingly. A chunk of detailed carving falls from the ceiling and smashes to pieces as the building groans. Wide eyed with shock Kisuke's gaze snaps back to Ichigo's face, to see that Ichigo is staring at him seriously, eyes still smokey but clearer than he has ever seen them before.

"Run." Ichigo mouths silently, and Shinji sees the warning as well.

Shinji grabs Ichigo's zanpakutō quickly as Kisuke tears off his own green coat and throws it to Yoruichi as she jumps forward. Tessai and Lisa have come forward as well and help him gently pry Ichigo's limbs up from the stone where they have stiffened into shape. It is likely only the properties of the throne that have prevented his flesh from fusing to it. As soon as he can Kisuke carefully supports Ichigo's head and shoulders while Tessai gets an arm under his knees and waist and Lisa directs their movement to lay Ichigo down on Kisuke's coat where Yoruichi has spread it out on the floor. As the two men support Ichigo's painfully inflexible body the women tuck the fabric around him to cushion him and give him just a bit of modesty.

Kisuke has to keep his hands free in case anything goes wrong with their transportation as they depart so Tessai scoops Ichigo up into his arms and holds him as carefully as he had Ururu when a hollow had broken the girl's leg the day Tessai had first met her. Ichigo doesn't move, but then he probably couldn't if he wanted to, so Kisuke just has to hope that Ichigo will trust Tessai to carry him.

Finally, as they are racing from the palace, the walls began to crumble around them. Glancing back Kisuke takes in Tessai near the back of the formation and he measures what pace it seems they will need. A slower one than he likes, but he doesn't want to risk Ichigo feeling any more pain than necessary. They jump into the vacuum-like portal heedless of the wobbling quality it possesses now with the king's realm collapsing around it.

Once again they all arrive within the path safely and Kisuke darts ahead, everyone stretching out in a line as they move to ensure no one is left too far behind. Shinji darts in ahead of him when they reach the exit and throws out an arm to hold him back until Lisa and Kensei have caught up. They go through the exit on each other's heels just in case any of the Quincys have tracked them down and are laying in wait on the other side. Luckily, they are proven to be overcautious in this case, as there is no one in sight on the other side.

As soon as everyone has stepped clear Kisuke wrenches the control panels and a good portion of the wiring out of the portable frame and kicks the rest to the ground where it collapses into pieces. He keeps a hold of the panel and leaves the rest behind, rushing just as urgently now as before and leading the way with his GPS as they retrace their steps across the quaking landscape.

They are in the air, racing with quick flash steps, as below them the dry desert ground cracks open like lightning tracing through the sky, tremors rending the landscape as large chunks of the ground tumble deeper into the new crevices. Eventually, in the distance, the mountain begins raising higher.

"Hell, what's happening?" Shinji yelled, the ground rising has thrown a lot of dust and dirt into the air and the wind is picking up.

"The Soul King holds the three realms together, with no one on the throne the worlds are collapsing in on themselves. Even though there doesn't look like there's much left it's still a lot of matter and it's all untethered now!" Kisuke explains, he really can't help himself, his mind is racing with the urgency of their mission now but the answer is so obvious that he can reply even without much thought.

It doesn't take long to discover why the Quincys hadn't been waiting for them outside the kings realm, they have brought what surely must be their entire force to encircle the original portal that had brought them to this timeline. A smaller group of them in the middle seems to be attempting to enter the portal, and as the rest of the Quincys catch sight of them and draw into formations to attack, Kisuke pulls back and goes to Ichigo.

"Here, let me..." He says to Tessai, knowing that he doesn't need to explain himself to his old friend.

He pulls out the last device he has brought, reaching into the fabric to place the small metal plate to Ichigo's bare chest and looping a wire with a few more plates around Ichigo's neck. It is the best solution he could come up with to incorporate the frequency of Ichigo's soul into the wavelengths of their own world, a process he hadn't needed to resort to in reverse as the gates they had stepped through were already set to do the same in reverse for them as they had arrived here. Now they will reverse the process as they go home but Ichigo will still need his own converter simply to get through the gates. Once they get home he can make the transition permanent for Ichigo with a device that couldn't have been made portable even with all the time Kisuke has been able to devote to this entire project.

As the world comes apart around them the Visoreds battle the Quincys while Yoruichi joins Kisuke in clearing out the ones who have been inspecting the gate. To one side one of the Quincys suddenly materializes a pair of green wings and a matching halo out of reishi, and the woman's attacks become that much stronger with the transformation. Curious, Kisuke almost wants to study that... There's no time for that though, they need to leave, and a concentration of enemy forces is bearing down on Hiyori and Shinji so there just isn't time for anything else. Kisuke's eyes sweep the battlefield and the gate, noting enemy and allied positions.

The portal itself is starting to warp, presumably from the pressure of the unseen strings that hold this world together coming apart and taking this world with it. If they don't make it through soon the portal will break down on this end and they will be trapped here to die right along with the Quincy forces around them.

Unwilling to lose when they have come so far and are so close to having Ichigo _home_ and _safe_ , Kisuke draws Benihime. She screams as they cut through every Quincy they can reach, and to Hell with what enemies they are leaving behind them, they just need to get everyone back through the portal. Catching Shinji's eye and then nodding to where Hachi has barricaded in a good portion of the Quincys forces Kisuke retreats to the portal again, the Visoreds circling back to join him and with another barrier from Hachi they have enough breathing room to jump into the portal.

Within, the riot of colors has shifted, no longer only blue and yellow but a kaleidoscope of the rainbow that they traverse with as much haste as possible while staying together at a pace that doesn't jostle Ichigo too badly. Spilling out of the other side of the portal seemingly just in time Kisuke shuts it down while the assembled groups gasp and heave for breath behind him.

Kisuke pushes himself back up and checks on Ichigo, the redhead's eyes are closed but he is still taking shallow breaths and Kisuke sighs with relief at their first stage success. Getting Ichigo up the ladder to the Shoten will be too much strain on his body, Kisuke realizes, it will be safer for him to stay down here in the training field if they can make him comfortable. Tessai seems to read his mind (as he does) and lowers Ichigo to the ground for Kisuke and Yoruichi to hold him again.

"There's extra bedding, I'll bring it down and start setting some things up." His old friend announces.

Kensei and Shinji followed after him to help, and the rest gather around to watch or to offer help if Ichigo needs anything more. They _need_ a real medical opinion, Kisuke realizes. Many of them have some talent for healing kaido but Ichigo will need much more than that. In fact it will be safer if they don't even try anything on their own before someone can assess his condition professionally.

"We need to call Unohana." He realizes aloud, the group instantly seeing the sense in that statement, well aware of how much help Ichigo needs.

Kisuke's gaze is drawn down to the body he's cradling. The slight weight and bony shape not deterring him from wanting to hold the man close. No, the obvious detriment to his health is what keeps Kisuke from holding him tighter, and he feels for a moment as though he is holding his breath and waiting for the worst to happen. His mind races over options to prevent worst case scenarios as he waits for Tessai to arrive back with the bedding, as soon as they have gotten Ichigo settled comfortably he will make the call, and Captain Unohana will hopefully take care of the rest. Kisuke will be more than willing to worry himself to exhaustion once Ichigo's immediate care is out of his hands if it keeps the man safe now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, the Soul King and his Palace and everything are described in a way that is definitely different from canon, I've read a lot more since then, so I see how far off my original ideas were, but I like them anyway.


End file.
